Movers & Shakers Interview with Kazaf Ye, Marketing and PR Specialist - Timekettle Technologies

Published Date: 3/20/2020

 

 

Kazaf Ye is a marketing executive and PR specialist with Timekettle Technologies. He is a technology enthusiast with proficiency in coordinating marketing campaigns, achieving targeted objectives and operational success in consumer electronics. He has a bachelors in political economy.

 

 

Vishal Sapru (VS), Principal Consultant, Cognitio Research Inc. had an opportunity to conduct a Movers & Shakers interview with Kazaf Ye (KY), Marketing Executive and PR Specialist – Timekettle Technologies.

 

VS: Can you provide our readers a brief overview of Timekettle? The vision behind introducing WT2 Plus AI Translator Earbuds and the role you see for the company in the market?

 

KY: Timekettle is found in December 2016. We aim to become the leading solution provider in communication between gaps and barriers - and translation is only our first step.

We have always been eager to create an AI translator that is entirely natural for people to use. One so immersive that this translator disappears into the experience. And so intelligent that it can just split, share, and start speaking, and that your voice, your glance, your body language can be expressed in a way you've never imagined.

Since Artificial Intelligence becomes the modern t for technology development, many companies focus on the interaction between human to computer. We have chosen a different path: the interaction between human to human.

Because no matter how society develops, how machines and technology evolve, the significance behind translation technology is that people are eager to establish intimate relationships.

We are more concerned about whether we can solve the anxiety in different life scenarios, and how to encourage people to communicate more often in different languages. We do this by shaping its form to offer an unprecedented immersive experience into life and work, inspiring everyone to express, so that each conversation is natural and profound, this is our imagination of the future.

 

VS: What innovative/smart technology is being used in these translator earbuds? How big is the translator earbuds market in terms of volume and revenues?

 

KY: The focus is on -

 

• Multi-channel communication technology - unique signal processing technology developed in house - this makes WT2 Plus the only translator product that connects multiple Bluetooth devices (in our case, the translator earbuds) with only one app.

 

• Noise cancellation based on Neural Network - enhance the recognition quality and accurately pick up users’ speaking sentences.

 

• Voice Activity Detection and Auto Pickup - The device can automatically activate and pick up the sentences once the users speak something, completely operation-free and wireless.

• Translator Earbuds Market - the current translator earbuds market is a extremely niche market. There are many TWS claiming to have translation feature yet they don’t work if you’d use it. Currently, there are no more than five companies in the world that’s working on REAL translator earbud, and Timekettle is the only one (by far) out of the five to successfully and technically pulled it off and launched to the consumer market. Market sizes no more than USD$5M per year in Translator Earbuds.

 

VS: Please, describe the functionality of your WT2 Plus AI Translator Earbuds and its likely impact on the market? How different is it from the products that are already available in the market?

 

KY: Each person in a two or more people conversation wear one of the WT2 Translator Earbuds. The WT2 would automatically pick up the sentences in 40 languages, and translate (automatically) to another language that the other people understand. This technology and interaction style is 50% (or more) faster than any other similar devices, in communication efficiency.

 

 

VS: Introduction of new products/technology always comes with challenges either from the market, existing products, customer and the settling period of the product/technology itself. What are some of the likely challenges WT2 Plus AI Translator Earbuds is expecting to face in the market and what strategy do you have in place to overcome it?

 

KY: Some of the key challenges include -

 

• No public awareness of the product, search volume is below average in industry (Consumer Electronics) benchmarks.
• Artificial Intelligence (Machine Translation) is the modern hotspot for technology development, most people are still skeptical about new technology.
• The market price for similar product is messed up - this happens to all CE products with new category.

 

VS: How would you describe the unique value proposition of WT2 Plus AI Translator Earbuds product and can you list its key competitive differentiators? Are there any unique features of your product that address unmet customer needs and competitors are unable to replicate and replace?

 

KY: Unique value proposition of our product includes -

 

• Immersive translation experience;
• Simul mode;
• Unique and optimized translation engines;
• For unique features, please refer to Question # 2

 

VS: What is your strategy in regards to offering best value to customers for the price, compared to similar product offerings from competitors? Also, what kind of customer feedback mechanism do you have in place to ensure that the product development and innovation matches market and customer needs?

 

KY: We did not focus too much on our competitors’ tech and prices, because Translator Earbud is a very niche product, and the important things are:

 

• Stay on the right path and act fast in product iteration. We developed an in-house technology that can “wake up” devices automatically, and more impressively, the Simul mode - all these technologies were not developed based on the concept of competitive thinking, but how we can provide the Most Natural experience. And with a goal like that, we do everything we can technically, and in result? We just happen to have better and greater technology than our competitors, both in quality and quantity.

 

• We value our users’ feedback. We consistently conduct surveys and research with our users, and we ask every team member in the company to speak to our users, analyze, and find out what we’ve done that are good, and what are the lacking elements of a greater product. We focus on observation in finding the true needs and demands, not just listen to what users’ say or think, and make it happen.

VS: Could you elaborate on the acceptance or adoption of your product in the marketplace and are there any client testimonials that can be shared with us? Also, do you foresee the acceptance of your product to have influence (trend setter) on the overall direction of the market?

 

KY: There are many positive reviews on Amazon US. And WT2 has repeatedly proved its success by always keeping a place in the Top 3 Best-Selling, and Top 1 for most of the 2019. Many companies are trying to replicate WT2, yet none have succeeded so far.

 

VS: Continued innovation is the key to success for any company. How is the process of innovation managed at Timekettle? And what do you want the company to accomplish in next 2 to 3 years and how will you define success for Timekettle?

 

KY: We believe our success lies in providing a systematic experience, including software, hardware, interaction design, and contents such as learning features.

 

We are aimed to become a full-scale solution provider in as many real-life user cases as possible in the next 2-3 years. Encourage more people to overcome language barriers and talk to others by implementing different solutions we’ve provided.

 

Our goal remains - communication is connection, this is the success we want to achieve the most.

 

 

VS: What are your marketing and product positioning initiatives? Do you plan to form any strategic alliances and/or partnerships and will the focus be regional or global? How do you plan to build and strengthen the brand equity of your offering?

 

KY: The positioning of our products is always focused on human-to-human communication, and the focus of our marketing is to continuously strengthen this public awareness.

 

Passing the information to people in need, letting them know the existence and characteristics of WT2, is the current focus.

 

We believe that with the current product performance, it will absolutely stand out and outperforms all competitors as long as it reaches the right audience. Our most valuable asset comes from how these people view and become aware of our brand; and the rest is to strengthen the brand by technology development and keep making innovative products.

 

 

VS: To conclude - what do you think the future holds for your company and the product? Any other information you may want to share with our readers that may be important and we missed asking?

 

KY: We will continuously optimize the communication and interaction experience of people in different real-life user cases - planes, hotels, homes, classes and so on; products so immersive that they disappear into the experience - this is the biggest differentiation between our company and similar product companies.